These Are Our Stories
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: He stuck his hands in the pockets of his blue and black jacket before glancing at the glowing Jason on the other side of the cavernous staircase. "It's hard to look at it sometimes."


**A/N: Wrote half of this before "Satisfaction" and the last bit after watching it. So I know this isn't accurate, but this was my interpretation from the snippets given prior to the episode. When Tim looked like Dick :\**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything at all.**

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**These Are Our Stories**

Nightwing had seen them go down into the "graveyard" that had been created for the fallen heroes of both the team and the Justice League itself. He waited to see if the rookies would come back up, but after they remained in the dark, dank cavern for a long time, he decided to follow them down and reminisce with them and to see if the hologram of his old friends did them justice. He generally stayed away only because the thought of graves troubled him.

"She really was great," sighed Gar, furry arms folding across his chest as he looked up at the archer's hologram. His voice betrayed both his admiration and his sadness. "I wish you guys had been able to work with her hands-on. Artemis was a great teacher when she and Wally were still around."

Bart's lower lip puffed out at the mention of Wally, but he said nothing about the speedster and instead continued to branch off on the thought of the blonde. "Wish I'd gotten to meet her, y'know? After all, she was practically part of my family."

"Lo siento, Imp," said Jaime gravely, his eyes dim as he winced and bit his lip to keep from snapping at the voice in his head. "She was pretty cool for what little I saw her 'round the place."

"She was one of the best." Nightwing's agreement made Jaime jump in surprise, but the other two were surprisingly calm. "One of the original six, you know. Only other non-meta." He grinned, remembering how they'd managed to save their teammates from psycho robots that one time. She thought not having powers was a big deal, but boy did he prove her wrong... "She gained a lot of respect around here. Especially with her family situation and her ability to persevere. Artemis was a survivor if nothing else."

"You were with her when she died?" Beast Boy's voice was soft and almost timid in asking.

He was hesitant but eventually managed a simple "Yeah" to suffice as his answer.

"She wasn't in pain, was she?"

It was strange how deeply Gar could care about people. Sometimes Nightwing questioned how he'd stayed so calm and peaceful after all the suffering and misery he'd been through, but everyone managed differently, which was something Dick had come to accept. "I don't know," he breathed.

There was a brief silence as the rookies took this in, a soft break for remembrance. Dick looked up at the hologram and decided that it was fitting for her. For now, at least. It would come down soon, he hoped, and so would her headstone in the Gotham cemetery. Then she could go home to her mother and back to Wally...

"When you were coming down here," Bart began to break the silence, "I thought you were Rob." He looked over his shoulder back at Nightwing, who did step forward to join the small posse of young heroes.

"Nah," said Dick, glad to have a topic other than Artemis. He trusted his tongue to keep quiet, but that didn't mean things couldn't slip. "He doesn't like to come down here."

A tension clouded the room. Jaime was the first to glance in the direction of the red and black hologram.

"Yeah, because of that," confirmed Nightwing before Beetle could ask. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his blue and black jacket before glancing at the glowing Jason on the other side of the cavernous staircase. "It's hard to look at it sometimes."

A lull fell once more over the small crowd of four. It was Jaime who spoke up. "What happened to him?" he asked in that soft-spoken, almost tentative voice he used sometimes.

"Bart's probably heard the story before-" The speedster nodded, and Nightwing didn't miss a best, continuing. "-but you weren't even Blue Beetle yet." Jaime shook his head, and the leader continued. "He was murdered by the Joker."

All three boys winced at this even though two of them already knew. Gar had known Jason. They'd been friends.

"They were separated for a few hours, him and Batman, and the Joker got ahold of him. It got nasty. Bashed him with a crowbar about fifty-some times." Nightwing closed his eyes behind his dark shades. "We got the video of it. Then he set a bomb. Place went up in flames while Robin was still alive. He was watching the bomb tick down before it went off. Batman couldn't save him. Robin was dead on the scene before he even got there."

No one said a word for a long moment.

"Robin doesn't want to be reminded that he's a walking target. He tries to stay away from the grave."

"It's weird," breathes Blue, his eyes now turned to the massive hologram of Ted Kord that seems to tower over the other three, "how seeing him really doesn't bother me much." His arms told across his chest and, despite his hoodie, a chill runs down his spine.

"Do you know how he died?" asked Grayson with a sad look in the Latino boy's direction.

"Shot in cold blood," muttered Bart, looking away. "Bullet to the head." He'd heard so many of these stories from Max and Wally over the years. Hearing Dick tell them again now only made it sting. These wounds in this time were still fresh. In his own era, they were merely forgotten scars, people lost in the ocean of passing time.

"Ted Kord was a good man. He helped a lot of people." He'd been one of Dick's "uncles" of sorts in the Justice League growing up since he had no family beyond Bruce. The League had become his family, and Ted Kord had been a part of it later on in the League's history, more towards his teen years. "He didn't deserve to die that way."

"Neither did Tula," argued Garfield, arms folded across his chest as his attention turned to the giant replica of the beautiful auburn-haired Atlantean. "She suffered. At least Kord took it like a man and finished it."

"I never did hear her story," breathed Bart, looking up at the Atlantean beauty, admiration in his unusually bright green eyes. "It was always overshadowed by Aqualad's betrayal."

"She was poisoned," Nightwing said softly, putting a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder and giving a soft, brotherly squeeze. After all, he was Miss M's blood brother and M'gann was like a sister to him. How could he not consider Gar his own flesh and blood? The younger boy didn't seem to relax with the mild reassurance as Nightwing carried on: "The water she was in was poisoned by Ocean Master. The water was contained, but the toxins couldn't be drawn out of her system. Something about jellyfish, if I remember right."

"Jellyfish toxin. A specialty from Ocean Master. Also used by Cheshire in a few rare instances." Bart could rattle off this information like it meant nothing.

Nightwing truly cared for Bart but sometimes worried about the kid's mental capacity; his attention span was that of a goldfish, but his knowledge was both elaborate and extensive. "Kaldur was there with her when she died. Some say he lost it, others say he was the first to calm everyone down." A deep sigh left his lips. "It's too hard to know now, obviously."

"Why isn't Kent Nelson down here?" asked Garfield, knowing the stories of his legacy as well as his death.

"He didn't fall in the line of duty," said Tim from the staircase, eyes hidden behind thick shades. "Which is where we're supposed to be. Mal's got something for us."

Everyone, minus Nightwing, turned quickly at the sound of his voice. The flock of younger boys bustled upstairs, passing Tim to get to the next thrill, to put themselves on the chopping block as the next hologram in the grotto.

"Dick?" called Tim, seeing his older brother pause in front of Jason with pursed lips and a tight face. The younger bird even took a step forward. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah. I'll be up in a minute, Tim." He watched as his little brother departed, following his friends up to the main part of the cave. Grayson lingered, looking up at his fallen sibling, his other brother, his successor. Then his eyes fell back to Artemis, analyzing her long blonde locks, her proud face, and her blood-free uniform. He dreaded having to tell that as the story of her death.

"You'd better come back to me," he told the empty air. With slow, heavy steps, he made his way topside to join his new brother and the rest of his family.

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


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